Value News Articles - Pat Reeder

Will Rogers Birthday Bash Nov. 1-4 continues the year of events that have paid tribute to his movie career and his Nov. 4, 1879 birth on an Indian Territory Ranch. The focus will continue to create a movie atmosphere in Claremore with memories of individual favorite movies, according to Tad Jones, Will Rogers Memorial Museum executive director.

Bring your lawn chairs and watch pilots from around the country come in over Oologah Lake and from all directions to celebrate aviation in the heartland. The Will Rogers & Wiley Post Fly-In marks the 83rd anniversary of the Aug. 15, 1935 Alaska crash that claimed the lives of the world’s most noted aviation enthusiasts of their time.

You are about to enter into a new dimension. An “Enhanced Tour” of Will Rogers Memorial Museums brings a new level of reality or information to visiting the Claremore Memorial and Oologah Birthplace Ranch.

It’s been 81 years since Will Rogers and Wiley Post died in an Alaska plane crash. News of the crash on Aug. 15, 1935 remains a historic tragedy felt worldwide, but no place more stunned than Oologah, the town where Will was born of and the home place where he lived as a boy.

Spring Break 2016 activities will be at both the Will Rogers Memorial Museum and Birthplace Ranch this year March 14-18. Exciting events are being planned for Monday through Friday, said Bart Taylor, Museum assistant curator for education.

A new class of Will Rogers Ropers, volunteers at Will Rogers Memorial Museums, officially ended their training and received their badges of honor and red bandana neckerchiefs in early December. It was just in time for two days of volunteering for Will’s Country Christmas, a first-ever holiday event at Will’s Birthplace Ranch.

Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch near Oologah will come alive with Christmas holiday lore and activities on Friday and Saturday, December 11 and 12. “Will’s Country Christmas” hours will be from 6 to 9 p.m.

The original Mike Wimmer oil paintings from Governor Frank Keating’s book “Will Rogers: An American Legend” have been relocated to the entry gallery of Will Rogers Memorial Museum. Call it serendipity or a home run.

Will Rogers and Wiley Post died in an Alaska plane crash on August 15, 1935. It is often called the “crash heard around the world.” This year the Will Rogers & Wiley Post Fly-In at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch will be Saturday, August 15, the 80th anniversary of the history-making event, when bold headlines in newspapers all over the world carried the story.

Volunteers are an active part of the mission of Will Rogers Memorial Museums’ daily operations and programs. A training program for a new class of Will Rogers Ropers, the name chosen for volunteers who wear a bandana kerchief, will begin September 3. Classes will meet each Thursday through November 12 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The graduation celebration will be November 19.